SubscribeThis is news nobody wants to hear.
"Wait", you say, "This is good news. Accessibility is being achieved!"
But what were the costs to human lives so many decades after Universal Design was created? What about current US economic stimulus spending on infrastructure that still settles for "mere accessibbility" and minimal compliance as if Universal Design was a new esoteric concept? How many millions of people would have been positively affected if Caltrans had adopted good design to e emulated around the world years ago?
Caltrans said it would spend $25 million a year in each of the first five years making upgrades statewide. More would be spent each year after that.
Disability Rights Advocates, a Berkeley-based nonprofit law firm that represents people with disabilities, called the settlement unprecedented.
Ben Rockwell of Long Beach was one of two named plaintiffs who said they experienced dangerous conditions in their everyday travels. He regularly navigates Southern California's busy Pacific Coast Highway.
"People like myself who are wheelchair users look forward to the day when we do not have to travel in the street with vehicular traffic because sidewalks are inaccessible," he said in a statement.
The AARP also joined the class-action suit "because with 77 million aging baby boomers in this country, we need to make sure our communities are places where everyone can live and get around," Julie Nepveu, an attorney for the litigation branch of the AARP Foundation, said in a statement.
Source:
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/sidewalks-89994-spend-california.html
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